Kreato
A swamp-covered planet plagued with roving lightning storms and viscous black rain. It’s primary output is Recycled Corpse Starch rations, produced from incoming shipments of corpses from around the sub-sector, and the artificially grown nu-meat. Life exists in small communities clustered inside submerged iron domes, connected with sub-surface transport links. Climate and geography Perpetual mist makes it difficult to distinguish night and day on the surface, and orbital vessels without special hulls may be seriously damaged from the roving energy storms.There is very little tectonic activity and hence no plates colliding to build mountains or form trenches, a high proportion of water to land and significant hydraulic turnover so any high ground will tend to weather down. This gives you lots of low-lying ground full of shallow seas and lakes, normally with a great deal of swamp in between. The temperatures of the swamps vary however, you get seasonal salt marsh at the equator, a steamy tropical belt that gives way to temperate wet forest and fens followed by wet taiga and then permafrost at the poles. This gives Kreato a phenomenally varied amount of flora and fauna with fascinating traits and properties that the Magos Biologis are keen to exploit. More examples are being discovered on a daily basis, and the local Adeptus Mechanic outpost Zeta-Phi is struggling to catalogue and research all the new samples being brought in. Native species Some of Kreato's famous fauna are; * land shrimp * vine cats * marsh wyrms * glarsaurs * swamp flies * skeeg molluscs * razor-rays Complex Priscilla Central administration for the planet and the largest space port, built from plas-steel domes and submerged under the swamps. All the joining tunnels, or 'transport links' are submerged as well, with only the major domes protruding above the surface. The population is about 30,000 comprising of; * ~1000 servitors * 73 Adeptus Mechanicus personnel * ~700 security personnel * 120 members of the Sorrentan PDF 222nd “Dawnwalkers” regiment * ~80 Clergymen from the Ecclesiarchy * ~50 Administratum personnel * ~40 physicians, medics, chirurgeons and medical assistants * The remaining ~28,000 are traders, workers and voidmen The Ecclesiarchy and medicae staff have no dedicated dome, so they make do by setting up makeshift missions and triages around the plaza and habs. Food and drink is recycled internally, but there is a huge market on imported goods. It is considered a right to bear arms, and every citizen is expected to be be packing heat of some kind. However, assault rifles and other automatic weaponry require special licenses distributed by the Administratum. Due to it's part-submerged nature, weapons tend to be hollow-point and low velocity to avoid puncturing the hull. The citizens themselves are fiercely loyal to their protector, Our Lady Eos, and some can spend hours a day praying at roadside shrines for her safe return. It has ten major areas of interest: * Worker Habs * Guard Quarters * Private Quarters * Orbital line and Outer Plaza * Port * Eastern Nu-meat fields * New Administatum building * Western Nu-meat fields * Corpse Recycling Plant * Astropath Relay Worker Habs One of the largest domes in the complex, it resembles a huge bee hive or datastack from the inside. A great spiral arm snakes around the inside of the dome, connecting each individual Hab on one long concourse. As a result, if you stand on the lowest floor, you can see straight up to the glass-domed roof at the top. The facility was built to house around 40,000 workers, so is approximately 2/3rds full. A ‘level’ is after the spiral has completed a full circle, and each level is divided into North, South, East and West quarters. There are 112 levels. Due to the pear-shaped construction of the dome, some levels will have as few as 100 Habs per level, and others may have up to 4000. An example room number: SL005.MMXI is South Level 5, Room 2011. There are 4 elevators that run the height of the dome, one for each quarter. Each Hab has a bedroom, living quarters with basic self-catering equipment and bathroom unit, each Hab being about 5x5 metres squared. Guard Quarters Very similar to the worker Habs, but a fraction of the size. Security is tight, with multiple keycard and ident-chit checkpoints. The arsenal of the complex is stored here, under the watchful eye of Quartermaster Ulius. ''' Much like the Worker Habs’ ground floor, the ‘basement’ level (which serves no other purpose than storage) has been turned into an impromptu common space and rec room. Overturned crates serve as table and chairs for card games, and makeshift bench presses line the walls. The quarters are only built to house around 500 guards, so having 700 plus 120 PDF troopers is taxing. They are encouraged to find partners within their ranks and share bunks, those that don’t often find their Hab put onto a timeshare rota. This issue is exacerbated by the fact the 222nd Dawnwalkers don’t like sharing whatsoever. Plans are in place to erect a suitable partition in the Worker Habs, but there is strong feeling against this motion from the Workers, who refuse to share their communal space with armed forces. There are two landing pads, both with a “Heracles” pattern heavy duty VTOL short-range atmo lander, each carrying half a dozen drill-pods. Although these are the sturdiest atmo landers planetside, they are still only suitable for ~20km round trips in good weather. Any further, and they must break orbit and hitch a ride with an orbital station, before re-entering at their chosen destination, but this is extremely costly in fuel, and with only a few stations in slow orbit, the window of opportunity is often very slim. Private Quarters Off-limits to anyone without clearance, or invitation with strict supervision. These quarters are assembled in the familiar spiral-hive template, but with much more room given to quarters (some have whole levels to themselves) and with many other sizeable rooms cordoned off for high-security storage, guest quarters, VIP lounges and the like. Each major dome will have a leader, elected official or similar, who will take up residence in the Private Quarter. These include: * Overseer’s Quarters * Chief Enforcer Doma Karabardak * Wharfinger Lieutitia Hurdle * Production Director Hushpreet Sangreer * Chief Administrator Karina Thralle * Commissar Jeremiah Krell has quarters, but chooses to bunk in the Guard Quarters * Astropath Euclides has quarters in an official capacity, but has never used them. Orbital line and Outer Plaza The orbital mag-rail line in the plaza travels in a ring around the Port in the centre. It is segregated from the rest of the complex in that you have to disembark the orbital, travel by foot through the security checkpoints then continue onto your destination. The advantage of the orbital is that an ident-chit is not necessary, and travellers, traders and visitors can use the transport free of charge. The other major difference is that the mag-rail runs through the centre of the plaza, bisecting it into an inner and outer ring, rather than confined to a cramped transport link tunnel. The Plaza is the beating heart of the complex. Workers and other personnel will gravitate here at the end of their shift to trade, relax and socialise. There are many bars, taverns and eateries, as well as countless trade stalls, tented shops and travelling sales people plying their wares. The air is very sooty and steamy from inadequate venting, and everywhere radiates a different palette of street food smells. Condensation sweats from the ribbed arch ceiling, and if you can find a bit of wall that isn’t occupied by a trader or devotional shrine, you will find it warm to the touch and slick with grime. The majority of wares here will be supply to fit a demand; fresh(ish) fruit, pure water, meat that comes from animals, basic domestic supplies, household goods etc. There may be a few choice speciality stores or novelty goods, but they will be few and far between, as they are likely only touching down to refuel and supply. However, there will be a few regular stores that never run out of business. Corinthia Swift, eccentric owner of Swift Draw, specialises in selling unlicensed pistols for the discerning citizen. If a firearm falls within the complex’ peculiar licensing laws, Swift will stock it. There’s Frag and Bone, run by a miserly bugger called Loth. It’s a used armour warehouse and other knick-knacks. It is also used as a base of operations for Hecate Trellio’s Quillrunners, an organisation installed by Dune after the Madrigal Inquiry to keep an eye on things. Their purpose is two-fold – to aid the smuggling and distribution of the largely outlawed Precipice Dreadquill, and to act as eyes and ears for Trellio’s recon reports back to Dune. The advantage of owning a junk warehouse is that it doesn’t raise suspicion when odd people come and go laden with odd things. Port One large airlock-style pad in the centre, surrounded by smaller satellite pads that pockmark the top of the plaza. The small nature of the port means that unless your passengers or goods can be unloaded without the aid of machinery, you are parked up on a nearby free pad and required to wait your turn. The central pad is on a gargantuan hydraulic lift covered by a pair of domed metal shutters. This ensures that cargo, personnel and dock machines never suffer the wrath of the temperamental weather. There are two elevators that connect to the sub-surface transport links here as well, allowing certain dignitaries or goods to join the mag-rail system directly, bypassing the Plaza orbital entirely. Eastern Nu-meat fields Laid out in rows like blood red vineyards, in stacks dozens tall, the nu-meat fields are a grisly spectacle indeed. The workers flock across them like ants, and from the vantage points of the gantries, catwalks and cherry pickers, they hose the nu-meat with chemicals and growth hormones and scrub them clean of parasites. It has the sickly over-sanitised smell of a hospital burn ward. High above the fields, a cadre of AdMech Magos Biologis survey their work, chittering to one another in binary. Around the outside of the vast hall are innumerable valves, dials and consoles all monitoring the sprawling translucent veins that carry vitreous-looking fluids across the floor and walls. Workers operate in 12-hour shifts, with multiple groups staggered every few hours to ensure no major downtime during shift changes. New Administratum building This dome follows the spiral-hive template but with its own twist. It is far wider and shallower than other domes, perhaps a dozen levels or so high, but with an inner helical spiral running counter clockwise to the outer arm. Between these two spirals runs a net of chains, chords and gears that support the myriad of manned and unmanned curiosities that glide gracefully around the room as if through water. Some have long, spindly manipulators that reach out and re-arrange some of the book-cases that line the outer wall. Some diligently shadow some ostentatious archivists as they stroll about the dome, orating the day’s economic reports. They appear like puppets on strings, or dancers performing high-wire acts. The walls and ceiling are covered in ornate gold plaques, marble busts and hand-painted murals. A hand-laid Imperial eagle is emblazoned on the stone floor, and Master Querious sits in the centre. Looking like a nest of mechanical spiders, his augmented torso sticks out from a whirring base of cogs and metal. His pickled, leathery head is attached to a prehensile telescopic spine, allowing him the grotesque ability of seeing anything from any angle whilst immobile in his clockwork cradle. He performs multiple duties at once, including checking in and out texts, cataloging new entries, referencing lookups and collating data with his various mechanical appendices. Western Nu-meat fields As the Eastern fields, but much older. A lot of work is underway to modernise the growth techniques. Chemicals are still being mixed by hand in great vats and brushed onto the nu-meat vines using specialist extendable brooms. Corpse recycling plant The less respected but more valued production of the facility. Whereas the Nu-Meat will feed Noble families and grace the richest of buffet-tables, corpse starch will be pressed into highly nutritious, if somewhat unflavoursome ration packs to feed the subsector’s armies. Every few days, a scheduled Morgueship from anywhere in the subsector will arrive with another shipment of freshly frozen corpses ready to be processed. The most iconic and fearsome stage of this process is known as the “Reapers’ Teeth” to the workers who fuel it. A colossal pit, filled with rotating blades, edges and grinders, designed to swiftly and efficiently reduce the bodies to a gloopy paste. This will be filtered out the bottom and decanted into its constituent parts. It is very rare that a worker will fall into the pit accidentally, but people do go missing, often through foul play, but by that point there is no body left to autopsy. The pit is only ever open when a Morgueship is moored on the pad above it, at which point, the giant metal shutters slide back, and lifeless grey naked bodies rain from the ceiling into the ravenous maw of the facility. Astropath relay The domain of one of the most important cogs in the machine, Astropath Euclides '''resides in his tower here. Rising high above any of the other domes, like a fantasy princess trapped in a castle. The Relay is tethered to the ground by incredibly strong ligaments grown by the local Magos Biologis to keep it from swaying in the heavy storms. It also acts as a lightning rod, gathering and storing power from the myriad lightning storms and converting it into a form of usable power for the complex. The tower is kept under the highest of security, with multiple ident-chit checks and full body scans to ensure nobody communes with Euclides who isn’t authorised. Magos Biologis Outpost Zeta-Phi Zeta-Phi was founded in 072.M41, shortly after Complex Priscilla was installed on the planet by Organicists of Magos Biologis as an outpost to oversee the production of nu-meat. It was re-purposed as a Research and Development lab shortly afterwards by decree of the Omni-synod, once the planet’s flora and fauna’s interesting symbiotic properties were discovered. Practically every living organism on the planet is parasitic in some way, living symbiotically with the host and strengthening it. This research proceeded at a steady, glacial pace, fractionally improving production yield year on year. In 013.M42, a highly contagious and debilitating disease called Arkiel’s Blight hit the Tangenia system and the ruling Magos Biologis issued an order to all labs in the Region to begin researching a cure. Zeta-Phi produced a serum within days of receiving the message. It subdued symptoms and suppressed the contagious element of the disease, returning a sufferer to full strength provided they can take the serum every few days. The formula was issued to Tangenia IV to begin manufacturing on a global scale. Around 9 months passed, and isolated cases of the disease were being reported outside of Tangenia. Pressure was put on Zeta-Phi from their superiors to produce a full cure. -Using a modified strain of parasitic fungus, a cure (of sorts) was found. With the correct dosage, it would immunise the patient against the Blight and as a bonus side-effect, boost bone density and strengthen muscle sinews. If the dose was too little, nothing would happen. If it was too much, the bone growth would get out of control and the fungus would take over the host. There was an initial round of test subjects and all were successful, so selected officials and dignitaries were inoculated across the region. The Zeta-Phi Organicists protested that not enough time had been given to monitoring the subjects after administering the serum, but these concerns were dismissed by the Magos Biologis. After variable lengths of time, some of the subjects began exhibiting terrifying symptoms, always resulting in the hosts’ gory, explosive death and the birth of a nightmarish skeletal beast, colloquially known as a “Sorrentan Bone-fluke”. Zeta-Phi shut down that line and immediately went about covering their tracks, disposing of remaining test subjects, boxing their research and hacking shipping logs. When a Varnstrom Industries factory was attacked on Tangenia IV and high-ranking personnel was killed, Zeta-Phi used the momentary disarray to frame them for negligence in quality control of their medicine. Isolated incidents of “extreme symptom sufferers” were still being reported on Tangenia IV for almost a year. A schism arose within Zeta-Phi as some Organicists wanted to destroy the boxed research as it was too dangerous to fall into the wrong hands. Others wants to reopen the case and complete the research, and were branded separatists by the rest of the Organicists. Tensions rose dramatically until a climax approximately a week ago in-game, when a strike team lead by Kaede Mack landed on Zeta-Phi to assist the separatist movement in liberating the research. The fighting was bloody and the body count was high on both sides. The conflict devastated the outpost, destroying research and releasing the test subjects from the high-security containment facilities. Mack managed to escape with the last remnants of the bone-fluke research, and along with the surviving separatists, fled the planet. At the last moment, a lay-adept Organicist called Uriel Cimbria had swapped the bone-fluke research out with some harmless nu-meat formula research. To save the rapidly failing data, she compiled all the facility’s research into the remaining uncorrupted databank, sealed herself off in the command centre deep within the facility and sent a distress call to the Adeptus Mechanicus temple on Sorrento V. The facility was cleansed by Inquisitorial Acolytes and the data was rescued, ready for the arduous task of re-inputting it into the facility's mainframe once it has been purified and sanctioned. Whilst the Inquisition waits for the Omni-synod to reach a verdict, it rests in the hands of newly promoted local techpriest Chantmaster Navareen Cogswain, with no small supervision from the Inquisition.